Excerpts

If we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. — John Muir

The more honestly you admit your mistakes, at work or in life, the more respect and trust you earn from the people around you. — Robert Iger

Treat people with kindness, and treat everyone with fairness and empathy. That doesn't mean giving up your expectations, or telling people that mistakes don't matter. It means building an environment where people know you're someone who will listen to how things happened, stay even-tempered and fair, and give people a second chance when they make an honest mistake. — Robert Iger

People often put their attention on small details to cover for not having a grip on a clear, coherent big picture. If you focus on small things, your vision will look small too. If the big picture is a mess, the small details don't matter, and you don't need to spend time on them. — Robert Iger

Starting with Dragon Boat Festival

I finally have time to sit down at my computer and write properly. I've been really, really busy lately. At work I've had a lot of trouble to deal with. So far I've only dealt with the thorniest of it, and plenty of less thorny but hungry-for-attention things are still waiting for me to grace them with a visit.

So today is Monday, and I'm catching up on last week's weekly.

But the story starts with the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

On the day itself, my mom went back to her hometown to see my grandparents, so Jiahua, Ziyu and I made plans to go out.

Jiahua and I were middle school classmates, but Ziyu wasn't. He's a co-worker I met on a summer job Jiahua and I took after high school graduation. "Co-worker" is a stretch, because we never actually worked together. The job was being a recruiter at a university, signing up part-time students.

During training we shared a dorm room and played Honor of Kings together whenever we had nothing to do. That was about the extent of what we had in common. After a few days of training, we all felt the job wasn't a good fit. We each dropped a "Esports is keeping me busy, I'll be going now" sticker in the group chat, packed up and ran off with our suitcases before dawn.

After that, apart from Ziyu asking me for advice when he bought a computer, he and I barely kept in touch. But funnily enough, he and Jiahua stayed friends all along. Once I moved back to Sichuan, the three of us somehow started hanging out more.

Sometimes friendships between guys are like that. They start from one sentence or one event and then last for years.

The thing is, the three of us are pretty different. I studied Internet of Things engineering in college, a typical engineering major, and my biggest hobby is reading and writing. Jiahua studied rehabilitation nursing, and his biggest hobby is gaming. Ziyu is the odd one out. He's the only one of us who hasn't graduated yet. He says: "If I can't find a job, I'll just have to go do a PhD." Haha. I don't know whether a PhD is a grind or a good gig, but to a corporate drone like me who's been working for four years, that line sounds a bit abstract.

That morning, we'd arranged to go to a Honkai: Star Rail event called "Summer Firefly," a solo exhibition for a character in the game named Firefly. Ziyu happens to love that character, so we tagged along for the fun.

But we got there too late (is 9:30 late?), and by the time there were only ten-odd meters left in the line, they'd given out all the merchandise. It was already noon. We'd basically stood in line all morning for nothing.

After lunch, we hit a void. Where to go that afternoon?

In the end we made a sensible choice: an internet cafe.

Even there, we differ. When it comes to online games, Ziyu, Jiahua and I are about the same age, but we play different things.

I'm the kind of person who plays almost nothing. If I had to name something, I can play a bit of League of Legends. Jiahua is the same. But Ziyu's different. He's a college student, and his gaming environment is different from ours. Besides League, he mostly plays Delta Force or Valorant.

Those are hugely popular games right now, but neither Jiahua nor I play FPS games. So Ziyu played League's Arena mode with us all afternoon.

Yes, that's right. All afternoon of Arena.

When I got back, I felt a bit dazed. Three guys spending a day off at an internet cafe playing League all afternoon sounds kind of retro now. We used to be people who could open a game whenever we felt like it, and these days it's become something we only do to kill time when we get together.

After we finished, we had dinner and went home.

I went back to my project. Jiahua went back to Monster Hunter. Ziyu went back to agonizing over whether to do a PhD or find a job.

For all our differences, we always have a great time when we get together. Jiahua and I both work out, and Ziyu doesn't. One time I took him to the gym and found he couldn't even squat down smoothly, so I taught him wall sits to improve his lower body at home.

See, even though Jiahua and I never have to worry about whether to do a PhD, there's still something we can help Ziyu with. And Ziyu does the same for me. He's the only student I know in real life, and he might become the only PhD I know in real life. Besides hearing him tell funny stories from the lab, I can often borrow his student status to get student discounts on software and electronics.

Ziyu, whatever you do, go do that PhD, or who's going to make up my student discounts?

Work

Work has been really busy lately. But for all the running around, it's mostly been about two things. Because I kept circling those two, I couldn't keep up with everything else, and it piled up.

Readers who know me probably know I do after-sales for medical devices. I fix equipment for hospitals.

What's so hard about fixing equipment? A machine breaks, you go fix it. That's it.

That's the idea, but after-sales isn't just about repairing machines. In lots of ways you have to be smooth with everyone.

My repair skills are actually decent. Basically, any fault I handle doesn't come back soon. The trouble isn't that I can't fix things. It comes from these two things:

• The problem isn't one I can solve.
• Problems keep coming one after another, a new one every day.

Terrible, but real, and I ran into both at the same time.

First, the problem isn't one I can solve. What problems can't a field service engineer like me solve? Software problems. Recently a unit was installed in Dujiangyan. The hardware is very mature, but it runs a new software package. It looks nicer than the old software, but it's all show and no substance, full of bugs, and it doesn't even have basic technical documentation.

In a case like this, all I can do is raise issues with the company one by one and deal with them one by one. But the trouble is that the programmer in charge of the project suddenly had a brain hemorrhage and now goes to the hospital for rehab every day. If I send a message in the morning about even a small bug, I may not get a fix until the next day.

When efficiency drops, a piece of software like that shows its immaturity in a big way.

So I decided to shelve it and push it back.

Then I went to handle the other trouble, the second case above.

A new machine had just been put into use at a hospital, and in ten days it broke six times, each time differently.

This machine has launched on a very small scale nationwide and has few customers. This hospital is arguably the first in the country to put it into service, and I, the after-sales engineer, got to ride along for the "perk."

For more than half a month now, I've been at this hospital almost every day. It's worn me out in body and mind, which is why I've had no energy at all for writing lately.

In fact, these faults are all small problems, and I can fix every one. The real problem is: I can fix the machine, but can I fix the resentment in the users' hearts? The other machine this hospital used before only became fully stable after I'd wrestled with it for half a year. Now, not long after, a new machine goes in and starts breaking all the time again. The resentment that hadn't gone away has grown a fresh one.

In the end, there were just too many problems, so I asked the company to send a technician to support the market. I never expected I'd be getting a lazy old-timer.

The colleague who came from the company has poor technical skills, and he can't even communicate properly with the user.

Every time something went wrong and he couldn't fix it, I had to go to the hospital and fix it myself. The situation was already busy, and now I was running back and forth every day.

How could I not feel disheartened facing work like this?

I really am exhausted. This imperial envoy was here four days, and I was at the hospital all four.

He spent half a day checking one fault and said he couldn't fix it. When I got there, I found he didn't understand how the machine works at all and had been adjusting in the wrong place for ages. No wonder he couldn't fix it. I solved it in under five minutes.

I never used to think my technical skills were all that strong, but by comparison I have to admit my ability to analyze and diagnose problems is pretty good. (I have to give myself a pat on the back, or I really can't take it.)

Today I spent another whole day at the hospital, and I'd say I've steadied the situation. Who knows what the next few days will bring.

The Entrance Exam

Chengdu's high school entrance exam results came out today. My brother scored 310.

Before the results came out, I'd looked at a number of schools. But without the scores, I couldn't be sure which school to apply to, because my brother's grades weren't great to begin with.

When the scores came out this morning, I was at the hospital fixing machines. I stopped halfway, checked the result, and then used every spare moment to pick schools and majors.

I also spent quite a while talking it through with Doubao. I have to say, Doubao knows quite a lot about this.

But reality is brutal. Below 485, you can't get into a regular high school.

And for vocational schools, the score means a lot too. 350 is a watershed. Above that, picking a school and major is basically easy. Between 320 and 350 there's still some room to maneuver, with options like the 3+2 program (three years of vocational school plus two of college).

But below 320 is awkward, and that's my brother's score.

This morning I asked five or six schools, all ones with good reputations in Chengdu. They were either full or the score didn't meet their requirements.

In the end I really had no moves left, because lots of schools started recruiting at the beginning of the year, and by the time scores come out, most places have already locked in their picks.

Luckily, two months ago I'd done a pre-registration at one school, so today I called to ask if we still needed to register in person. They said yes.

So I had my mom take my brother to the school. But the school said students below 320 should come tomorrow afternoon.

What will happen tomorrow, we don't know yet.

At least the worst case is that he ends up in the most ordinary junior college prep track, which isn't actually so bad.

It's just that this search for a school made me feel firsthand the chaos at this critical moment.

It's not only the high-scoring students who compete. Low-scoring students get sorted into tiers too.

Grades matter, but so does seizing the right moment. Some students start looking for schools months ahead, and even if their scores aren't great, they still end up with a spot.